Release Flatcar Container Linux Alpha 4547.0.0, Beta 4515.1.0, Stable 4459.2.2

[John15321]

The release of the following Flatcar Container Linux version is planning December 15th, 2025.

• Alpha 4547.0.0
• Beta 4515.1.0
• Stable 4459.2.2

Release Team

• @John15321
• @danzatt
• @ervcz

1. Preparation

Owner: @John15321

• [x] A. Go/No-Go hackmd doc created from HackMD template for test tracking and release notes: link
• [x] B. All planned changes are merged & blocker bugs are fixed, last nightly reviewed for problems.
• [x] C. Check that the kernel PR are merged for the channel(s) to be released.

2. Build

Owner: @John15321 @ervcz

• [x] A. Branched off the main branch (only for new major).
• [x] B. Tagged all the build branches.
• [x] C. Started the Jenkins builds, post the links into this issue as comment.

3. Release

i. The Go/No-Go Meeting

Owner:

• [ ] A. Test status captured in the HackMD document.
• [ ] B. All tests are Green.
• [x] C. Update payload signed/uploaded (can be done as soon as images are available on bincache.flatcar-linux.net) / @tormath1
• [ ] D. Release notes / announcements added to Go/No Go doc from container/image_changes job by selecting Timestamps: None.
• [ ] E. QA: Checked the diff for image file list, packages, and image size in the container/image_changes job output.
• [ ] F. Conduct Matrix Go/No Go meeting (inc. release notes review).

ii. Artifacts goes public

Owner: @danzatt

• [ ] A. Ran the container/release Release job.
• [ ] B. Created the Release Notes on the scripts repo for the respective tags on GitHub as GitHub Releases.
• [ ] C. Update channel-info.txt (Prerequisite: 3.i.C must be marked done)
• [ ] D. Website updated with Flatcar releases PR Github Actions and PR merged.
• [ ] E. Release package published in Nebraska / @tormath1

iii. Cloud Marketplace & Cluster API

Owner: Azure: @danzatt

• A. Azure

  • [ ] Offers updated and started publishing.
  • [ ] Sent the offers to publish to Live.

• B. GCP

  • [ ] Offer deployment package uploaded to Google Bucket & submit for verification.
  • [ ] Offer Publish

• C. Cluster API for new Stable

  • [ ] Azure: Manually run ./azure-sig.sh to create New Shared Community Gallery Images
  • [ ] OpenStack: documentation

4. Announcements

Owner:

• [ ] A. Sent announcement to Mailing Lists
• [ ] B. Sent Tweet out to X (Twitter), and Toot out to Mastodon
• [ ] C. Brief version announcement in slack (k8s slack #flatcar) and the Flatcar Matrix channel

[John15321]

Ongoing builds:

• Alpha 4547.0.0 - ~~http://localhost:8080/job/container/job/sdk/2416/cldsv/~~ new: http://localhost:8080/job/container/job/sdk/2420/
• Beta 4515.1.0 - http://localhost:8080/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/7110/cldsv/
• Stable 4459.2.2 - http://localhost:8080/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/7111/cldsv/

[John15321]

Builds succeeded moving to communication

[John15321]

Go / No Go result = Go moving to the next step